Volume 2 Issue 38
Matrix Announces the Successful Sale of Schmuckal Oil Company
Matrix Capital Markets Group, Inc. (“Matrix”), a leading, independent investment bank, announces that it has advised Schmuckal Oil Company and its affiliates on the sale of its 25 convenience retailing and petroleum marketing assets to True North Energy LLC. The transaction also included Schmuckal’s small wholesale fuel and transportation businesses.
Schmuckal was founded in 1955 when Art Schmuckal and George Slane developed a partnership to supply fuel to service stations in and around Traverse City, MI. In the 1980s, Art’s son, Paul Schmuckal, took control of the Company and transitioned it from a wholesale supplier to a leading convenience retailer in northern Michigan. Schmuckal Oil became a multi-branded fuels company through the acquisition of several Marathon stores in 2000 and has been consistently recognized as one of the best Shell operators in the country. Matrix provided merger and acquisition advisory services to Schmuckal, which included valuation advisory, marketing the business through a confidential, structured sale process, and negotiation of the sale and lease transactions. The transaction was managed by Spencer Cavalier, Co-Head of Matrix’s Downstream Energy & Convenience Retail Group; Andrew LoPresti, Vice President; and Martin McElroy, Senior Analyst.
Kevin Severt, CEO of Schmuckal Oil Company commented, “Our Board of Directors, executive management team, and Schmuckal family members explored many options before selecting Matrix to run a structured process and guide us through the sale of the family business. While it is emotional and challenging to sell a business, we felt the time was right for the family to find another company with the culture of a “family owned and operated” business to take our operation into the future. Matrix provided a high-level of professionalism and ran a very productive process that helped us accomplish our goal. We thoroughly enjoyed working with the Matrix team, including Spencer Cavalier, Andrew LoPresti, and Martin McElroy, and are genuinely excited for our customers, employees, and shareholders to be selling our business to True North Energy.”
Mr. Cavalier added, “The Schmuckal family, led by Paul Schmuckal, built one of Michigan’s most successful petroleum marketing and convenience retailing companies, with the core of its retail operation clustered in the highly coveted Traverse City area. Matrix is honored to have advised the shareholders and have enjoyed working closely with Paul and the Company’s CEO, Kevin Severt, to successfully close this transaction.”
About Matrix’s Downstream Energy & Convenience Retail Group
Matrix’s Downstream Energy & Convenience Retail Group is recognized as the national leader in providing transactional advisory services to companies in the downstream energy and multi-site retail sectors including convenience retailing, petroleum marketing & distribution, propane distribution, heating oil distribution, lubricants distribution, petroleum transportation & logistics, terminals and bulk plants, car washes, food service and specialty retail. Team members are dedicated to these sectors and draw upon complementary experiences to provide advisory services to complete sophisticated merger and acquisition transactions, debt and equity capital raises, corporate restructurings, corporate valuations, and strategic planning engagements. Since its inception in 1997, this dedicated group has successfully completed over 225 engagements in these sectors with a total transaction value of more than $10 billion.
About Matrix Capital Markets Group, Inc.
Founded in 1988, Matrix Capital Markets Group, Inc. is an independent, advisory focused, privately-held investment bank headquartered in Richmond, VA, with additional offices in Baltimore, MD, Chicago, IL, and Dallas, TX. Matrix provides merger & acquisition and financial advisory services for privately-held, private-equity owned, and publicly traded companies, including company sales, recapitalizations, corporate carve outs, corporate recovery, management buyouts, capital raises of debt & equity, corporate valuations, fairness opinions and business consulting. Matrix serves clients in a wide range of industries, including downstream energy, convenience retail, industrial products, building products, consumer products and business services. For additional information or to contact our team members, please visit http://www.matrixcmg.com.